While working as an in-studio Design Engineer for Conrad Shawcross Studio, I was given the opportunity to help develop the first in a series of kinematic sculptures. These were conceived by Conrad Shawcross and I was tasked with helping to develop a mechanism and actualise the concepts. This was an invaluable experience that introduced me to the prototyping, design, and fabrication processes.
The mechanism for the assembly was refined over a series of prototypes and the final design was completed as a collection of cut-patterns for 3 mm mild steel, which were welded in-studio.
The mechanism was actuated via a lead screw, driven by a stepper motor. An Arduino was used to control the motor driver and a limit switch prevented the actuator from exceeding the safe range.
I conducted hand calculations to verify the strength of the installation. The assembly was simplified to free body diagrams and the relevant stresses were calculated under static loads (this was considered sufficient owing to the very slow acceleration of the piece). These were verified via simulations in Fusion 360.
The final piece slowly opened and closed from the upper corner of a room.
The slow motion of the panels was almost imperceptible but the reflections in the panels moved quickly (owing to the longer length scales of the reflections); this dissonance produced an intriguing and unsettling effect.
A subsequent design was complete for a 3 m (i.e., twice as large) version. This required additional structural engineering to cope with the tremendous weight of the front panels.
